Skip to content
People of the Revolution and the USSR
Activity(set)
Affiliation
Position
Citizenship
Background
Era(set)
People of the Soviet Union
People of the Chinese revolution and the People’s Republic
People of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era
People of the wider world
-
Sergei Yakovlevich Bagdatev Сергей Яковлевич Багдатьев
A Bolshevik praktik who pushed the movement's radical edge
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1887–1949
-
Irina Konstantinovna Kakhovskaya Ирина Константиновна Каховская
Left SR who organised the 1918 assassination of the German field marshal Eichhorn in Kiev and spent decades in Soviet prisons and exile
Social movements and organizing · Party of Left Socialist Revolutionaries
1887–1960
-
Yakov Moiseevich Fishman Яков Моисеевич Фишман
Revolutionary who went from Left SR leader to architect of Soviet chemical warfare
Political and party leadership · Party of Left Socialist Revolutionaries
1887–1961
-
Veli Ibraimov Вели Ибраимов
Crimean Tatar national communist who pressed Crimean Tatar interests as head of the Crimean ASSR and was executed
Government and administration · Soviet Union
1888–1928
-
Sergei Vitalyevich Mrachkovsky Сергей Витальевич Мрачковский
The Red commander of the Urals
Military command · Soviet Union
1888–1936
-
Grigory Yakovlevich Sokolnikov Григорий Яковлевич Сокольников
The finance commissar of NEP stabilization
Economy, finance and planning · Soviet Union
1888–1939
-
Alexander Stepanovich Antonov Александр Степанович Антонов
The man whose name became the rebellion: SR leader of the Tambov 'Antonovshchina,' the largest peasant uprising against Bolshevik rule
Social movements and organizing · Party of Left Socialist Revolutionaries
1889–1922
-
Ivan Pavlovich Tovstukha Иван Павлович Товстуха
Stalin's first secretary, keeper of his archive and author of his first biography
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1889–1935
-
Gavriil Ilyich Myasnikov Гавриил Ильич Мясников
Worker-Bolshevik who demanded press freedom from Lenin, sparking the 'myasnikovshchina' polemic
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1889–1945
-
Alexandra Vasilievna Artyukhina Александра Васильевна Артюхина
The only woman on the Orgburo and Secretariat, who led the Zhenotdel at its peak
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1889–1969
-
Fanny Efimovna Kaplan Фанни Ефимовна Каплан
The SR activist who shot Lenin, believing him a 'traitor to the revolution'
Social movements and organizing · Socialist Revolutionary Party (PSR/SR)
1890–1918
-
Georgy Leonidovich Pyatakov Георгий Леонидович Пятаков
The Bolshevik between revolution and the industrial plan
Political and party leadership · Soviet Ukraine
1890–1937
-
Martemyan Nikitich Ryutin Мартемьян Никитич Рютин
Right Oppositionist who authored the 'Ryutin Platform': the last organized intra-party call to remove Stalin
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1890–1937
-
Yakov Naumovich Drobnis Яков Наумович Дробнис
Founder of Ukrainian Bolshevism, signatory of the Declaration of the 46
Political and party leadership · Soviet Ukraine
1890–1937
-
Alexander Yakovlevich Arosev Александр Яковлевич Аросев
The revolutionary who ordered the Kremlin shelled, and the proletarian writer who published thirty books
Literature and arts · Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP)
1890–1938
-
Dmitry Andreyevich Furmanov Дмитрий Андреевич Фурманов
The commissar-writer who turned Chapaev into a Soviet myth
Literature and arts · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1891–1926
-
Vladislav Vikentyevich Kosior Владислав Викентьевич Косиор
The Kosior brother who died in Vorkuta as an oppositionist while his brother ruled Ukraine for Stalin
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1891–1938
-
Maria Akimovna Volodicheva Мария Акимовна Володичева
Lenin's duty secretary, recorder of his final dictations
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Union
1891–1973
-
Asja Ernestovna Lācis Asja Lācis
Proletarian children's theatre pioneer who led Walter Benjamin to Marxism and Brecht
Literature and arts · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1891–1979
-
Andrei Klyushnikov Андрей Клюшников
Comintern agent known as Nenin who built revolutionary committees in southern Bessarabia and led the Tatarbunary Uprising
Social movements and organizing · Comintern
1892–1924
-
Ivar Tenisovich Smilga Ivars Smilga
The young oppositionist of the Revolutionary Military Council
Political and party leadership · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1892–1937
-
Nikolai Dmitrievich Kondratiev Николай Дмитриевич Кондратьев
The agrarian economist who discovered long economic waves
Economy, finance and planning · Soviet Union
1892–1938
-
Mirsaid Khaydargalievich Sultan-Galiev Мирсаид Хайдаргалиевич Султан-Галиев
The architect of Islamic socialism and national communism who became Stalin's first ideological purge victim
Political and party leadership · Soviet Union
1892–1940
-
Mykola Hryhorovych Khvylovy Микола Григорович Хвильовий
Founder of modern Ukrainian Soviet prose
Literature and arts · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1893–1933
-
Vladimir Ivanovich Polonsky Владимир Иванович Полонский
Bolshevik Orgotdel chief and trade-union officer purged in 1937
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1893–1937
-
Klavdiya Ivanovna Nikolaeva Клавдия Ивановна Николаева
The printworker who rose to the Central Committee: a proletarian woman revolutionary
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1893–1944
-
Boris Mikhailovich Donskoy Борис Михайлович Донской
Left SR sailor who killed the German field marshal Eichhorn with a bomb in Kiev in 1918 and was hanged
Social movements and organizing · Party of Left Socialist Revolutionaries
1894–1918
-
Sergei Georgiyevich Lazo Сергей Георгиевич Лазо
Moldovan nobleman turned Bolshevik revolutionary who established Soviet power in the Far East
Military command · Soviet Union
1894–1920
-
Alexander Petrovich Dovzhenko Александр Петрович Довженко
Poet of Earth: the Soviet master who sang the Ukrainian land and people through lyrical montage
Literature and arts · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1894–1956
-
Larisa Mikhailovna Reisner Лариса Михайловна Рейснер
The revolution's Valkyrie. Poet, scout, and the first woman commissar of the Naval General Staff
Literature and arts · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1895–1926
-
Semyon Grigoryevich Roshal Семён Григорьевич Рошаль
The 21-year-old commissar who brought Kronstadt sailors to the revolution
Social movements and organizing · Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP)
1896–1917
-
Boris Ignatyevich Arvatov Борис Игнатьевич Арватов
The Saint-Just of the avant-garde, theorist of production art
Scholarship and theory · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1896–1940
-
Pyotr Ivanovich Smorodin Пётр Иванович Смородин
The worker-Bolshevik who built the Komsomol's mass base and made 'study' its watchword
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1897–1939
-
Mikhail Efimovich Koltsov Михаил Ефимович Кольцов
A leading voice of Soviet journalism whom Hemingway immortalized as Karkov
Literature and arts · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1898–1940
-
Lev Vladimirovich Kuleshov Лев Владимирович Кулешов
Creator of the Kuleshov Effect, the father of Soviet montage theory who proved editing, not the shot, creates meaning
Literature and arts · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1899–1970
-
Yakov Grigorievich Blumkin Яков Григорьевич Блюмкин
Left SR assassin of Mirbach turned OGPU illegal resident, executed for meeting Trotsky
Security, intelligence and policing · Soviet Union
1900–1929
-
Boris Georgiyevich Bazhanov Борис Георгиевич Бажанов
The only defector from Stalin's Secretariat, chronicler of Politburo secrets
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1900–1982
-
Nikolai Pavlovich Chaplin Николай Павлович Чаплин
The boy commissar who built the Komsomol into the party's youth-training apparatus
Social movements and organizing · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1902–1938
-
Yevgeny Petrovich Petrov Евгений Петрович Петров
Co-author with Ilf of The Twelve Chairs, satirist who captured NEP-era Soviet life and later edited Ogonyok magazine
Literature and arts · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1902–1942
-
Nikolai Alekseyevich Ostrovsky Николай Алексеевич Островский
Author of How the Steel Was Tempered, paragon of socialist realism
Literature and arts · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1904–1936
-
Leonid Petrovich Serebryakov Леонид Петрович Серебряков
The Left Opposition secretary whom Lenin called a 'brilliant worker'
Political and party leadership · Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks
1888/1890–1937